Forum Overview :: Reviews :: BG2 tank - beginners howto

[quote name="Gubbi"][quote name="William H. Hayt, Jr."]I started playing BG2 only recently based entirely on your review. After 4 or 5 days of intense playing, I became completely overwhelmed by the amount of magic in the game and hastily uninstalled it, but your monk comment gives me hope. Can I play the game reasonably with no magic at all? Because then it might be worth trying again.[/quote] Yes you can. You'll need to do all the side quests though to get all the good kit. The keys to surviving the magic in BG2 as a tank are your saving throws and magic resistance. Dwarven berzerker specialized in hammers is <b>the</b> choice (crazy hammers in the game). You'll have excellent saving throws except for polymorph (petrification) and breath, but lo and behold you'll get two items early in the game (chapter 2/3) that fixes just that. The berzerk skill also lets you tank through the lamest of spells: imprisonment. Make him dumb and ugly: 18/whatever, 17,19, 9, 18, 3 in strength, dex, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma (intelligence should be 6 above minimum, you'll find out why). Monk's are a good choice too, you'll get magic resistance and faster run/walk, you'll also do crazy damage <b>with your hands</b>, making you alot less reliant on your kit. But you saving throws only improve as a cleric's so this is definately harder than playing a fighter class (fighter, ranger or paladin). Eventually you'll cave in and read up on all the spells, simply because it will save you time overall and make the game more enjoyable than the load fest in can be otherwise. If you don't have the Throne of Baal (TOB) expansion, you could try a ranger with archer kit. Archer's get the best Thac0 in the game bar none (like 8-10 better than the best fighter). If you try this, choose dragons as racial enemy. If you have TOB, don't bother, 50% of the monsters in TOB are piercing damage resistant. Cheers Gubbi[/quote]